LGBTQ Resource Center finally gets a director, and it’s not Bill McCoy
Posted by: Anna Bank in Campus NewsStudent Affairs VP Todd Olson announced in a broadcast email this week that the long-promised LGBTQ Resource Center — one of GU Pride’s major demands throughout their yearlong conversation with the administration — has someone lined up to fill the director position. Her name is Sivagami Subbaraman, and she certainly sounds qualified for the job; she’s currently the Associate Director of the University of Maryland’s Office of LGBT Equity.
I’m a little surprised, though, that current Director of LBGTQ Community Resources Bill McCoy wasn’t tapped for the top job. McCoy is also the Associate Director of Student Programs, though, and perhaps he (or another admin) wanted him to stick with that rather than running the new center. Either way, choosing a director is a commendable concrete step forward for a process that’s been characterized by drawn-out working group negotiations and back-and-forth bureaucracy.
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What do you consider ‘drawn-out working group negotiations and back-and-forth bureaucracy’? This center was negotiated, placed and designed in months — the attack happened in October, the LGBTQ working groups met and presented their goals in December, the center was OK’ed within a month or two, and they got their director this week. In Georgetown time — and really at any university — that’s phenomenally fast.
Usually at Georgetown, fast means at least 6 months to a year before any minor change goes through, and multiple years for major changes (Weekend GUTS buses, safety call boxes… etc.)
Discussions for a resource center, at least between student groups and the administration, have been going on since 2001 (as far as the Voice archives reveal). At any rate, it should never have taken a hate crime to spur Georgetown into offering the center.
More importantly, I don’t understand why we should start judging improvements at the University against its typically slow pace. That everything happens slowly doesn’t mean that ‘less slow,’ so to speak, deserves praise. No one should start accepting a lackadaisical timeline for change, even (perhaps especially) if it is the norm. Remember that even though the hate crime happened early in the past academic year, yet another class of Hoyas has since graduated without the benefit of a resource center.
I’m afraid the masquerading Todd Olson seems not to be. His IP isn’t based in Georgetown or even DC. Oh well. Check back next semester for incendiary posts that will surely provoke Todd of the Leavey Olsons (that’s where his office is, right? He’s always in the elevator).